The PPP yesterday maintained that it intends to engage former longstanding executive Ralph Ramkarran on his resignation, in order to reconcile.
“The party’s EXCO [Executive Committee] still hopes that Cde Ramkarran will reconsider his action as there is no fundamental disagreement on any policy issue,” the governing party said in its second statement since Ramkarran’s shocking resignation on Saturday.
Ramkarran, whose family has long been associated with the party and is who seen as one of its most credible figures, tendered his resignation after the fallout from a recent column he authored in the Mirror newspaper, in which he said that corruption was pervasive and the government needed to do something about it. He said in a brief statement to Stabroek News on Saturday that at the executive committee meeting “disquiet was expressed about the confidentiality of discussions in my presence having regard to my recent article on corruption. However difficult it might be to link the two issues, the intensity of the discussions was such that further participation in the activities of the PPP would be a challenge.”
The PPP, which issued a statement on Saturday to confirm Ramkarran’s resignation and its intention to engage him, said yesterday that there was a “very heated” EXCO meeting last Friday.
“Fiery debates are not unusual in the Party, unfortunately this one led to a resignation,” it explained in a statement issued through press officer Romel Roopnarine. It noted that the leadership encourages open and frank deliberation on all issues with members given the opportunity to fully participate. “It was a case where Cde Ramkarran felt insulted by the remarks of another member and left the meeting before it concluded. The offending remark was withdrawn by the member and an apology was also offered,” the party noted.
It further said Ramkarran is a long standing and highly respected member and that he has made very valuable contributions to the party and the country as a whole. “We intend to engage Cde Ramkarran in further discussions with a view of reconciling the matter. This is an approach we have always taken in such situations,” the party added.
Senior PPP members including, Minister Robert Persaud, have been tight-lipped on Ramkarran’s sudden exit.
Ramkarran, who has served the party for 50 years, has been vocal about a number of issues, including “pervasive corruption,” in his column in the PPP aligned Mirror Newspaper. In the June 16, column, Ramkarran wrote that he knew of enough verifiable instances of corruption to satisfy himself that it was a pervasive problem.
He said many of the corruption reports in the media are exaggerated or frivolous while others were serious enough to make the government take note. “Corruption and allegations of corruption are not going to disappear if we do nothing else other than call for proof, claim that we now have regular reports from the Auditor General, or that we declare our assets to the Integrity Commission while the opposition members do not. The time has come to take action,” he wrote.
AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan has described the resignation of Ramkarran as a sad and dark day in politics and the party has since offered to take Ramkarran into its fold.
Ramkarran’s father, Boysie Ramkarran, was a leading light of the party and a confidant of the late PPP leader and President Dr Cheddi Jagan. His departure is seen as a major blow to the PPP/C and an even bigger challenge, following the departure of party stalwart Moses Nagamootoo—who joined the AFC— the party’s continuing decline at the ballot box, and concerns that its leadership has strayed from the precepts of honesty and frugality laid down by the Jagans.
Ramkarran, a Senior Counsel and former two-term Speaker of the National Assembly, had stuck with the PPP through thick and thin, having to fend off a barrage of accusations from across the political spectrum and public that he had turned a blind eye to numerous transgressions by PPP/C governments, particularly under former president Bharrat Jagdeo.
